A Social History Of Dying

Our experiences of dying have been shaped by ancient ideas about death andsocial responsibility at the end of life. From Stone Age ideas about dying asotherworl... » 

Our experiences of dying have been shaped by ancient ideas about death andsocial responsibility at the end of life. From Stone Age ideas about dying asotherworld journey to the contemporary Cosmopolitan Age of dying in nursinghomes Allan Kellehear takes the reader on a 2 million year journey ofdiscovery that covers the major challenges we will all eventually faceanticipating preparing taming and timing for our eventual deaths. This is amajor review of the human and clinical sciences literature about human dyingconduct. The historical approach of this book places our recent images ofcancer dying and medical care in broader historical epidemiological and globalcontext. Professor Kellehear argues that we are witnessing a rise in shamefulforms of dying. It is not cancer heart disease or medical science thatpresents modern dying conduct with its greatest moral tests but ratherpoverty aging and social exclusion. «